I've been looking at our rain water barrel which has been staring back at me for the past couple of years. It's such an eye sore in our tiny urban garden. Practical and environmental, but oh so ugly. When I mentioned that I really disliked its look the other day, the kids yelled at the same time: "LET'S PAINT IT!!!!!"

Can I just say that kids have the best ideas? I mean, am I slow or what? I've seen it before, but I never thought to do it myself. But they are right, I'd rather be staring at my kids' art than the drab dark grey of our rain barrel.

I'd suggest using a spray paint formulated for plastic like Krylon's Fusion for Plastic or Rust-oleum's Plastic Primer as a base and outdoor acrylic paints for the decorative painting. In my case, I'm going to paint the basic background with the spray paint on my own, then have the kids come and do the details with acrylic paint.